HT refreshes Page One

Across its Delhi & NCR and Mumbai editions, the English daily has added a three-column flap to the front page, titled as 'Page One Plus'.

On September 9, Hindustan Times (HT) launched an initiative titled 'Let's Make News Better', adding a Page One Plus feature to its Delhi & NCR and Mumbai editions. HT claims that the initiative provides a refreshed avatar of the English daily.

Page One Plus is a three-column page flap placed over page one, which the people can tear easily and keep in their pockets. It is a quick snapshot of important news, editorial and events across the city, movies and TV programmes people watch.

'Let's Make News Better' marks HT's attack against negative news and will involve its readers to create a stronger impact on the agenda. It includes a series of campaigns on the city issues such as bad roads, crime against women and many others.

The English daily has adopted a campaign based approach to solve the key problems of the readers. Some of its campaigns are Toll Free Gurgaon, and road safety in Chandigarh, Delhi and Mumbai. The editorial vision will manifest itself in the form of the 'Let's Make News Better' campaign.

Speaking about the campaign, Shantanu Bhanja, business head and VP, marketing, HT Media, says 'Let's Make News Better' is more than a campaign, it's our positioning. "This campaign is about taking on issues that feature today as negative news. News, today, is full of negativity - from stories of strewn garbage to crime against women and deaths due to bad roads to the state of education that continues to plague 21st century India. HT's approach will be to take this 'Bad news' head on. We will put the spotlight on these issues -- both local and national -- that affect our readers, cover them relentlessly, partner citizens and impact change. We will, together, make news better. The 'Let's Make News Better' campaign is a statement of our vision, and is aimed at joining hands with our readers and impacting change around us."

The daily is blazing all guns to promote this campaign using print ads, social media, audio and OOH vehicles.

The Page One Plus innovation is a first of its kind industry initiative that has been designed on the back of a lot of consumer observation and insight mining, claims HT.

The ad-edit ratio on this page will vary from day to day. The new offering will primarily help the reader to navigate the paper easily as it will have sufficient news as well as advertising space, delivering value to both, the reader and the advertiser.

Bhanja adds, "Our design lab, backed by inputs from the consumer insights team, has effected several key changes. For instance, we have introduced new fonts to improve legibility and made several design tweaks to ease navigation. We've also tried to give the newspaper a younger look and feel, and added elements for quick take-outs to especially draw in the mobile-hooked generation."

HT plans to take forward the Page One Plus innovation to other editions after seeing the response from Delhi & NCR and Mumbai.

Apart from newspapers, the HT Media Group has presences in radio, online, events, education and others. Some of its popular brands are Hindustan Times, Mint, Hindustan, and Fever FM.